Reports
Farmworkers in the United States are a marginalized population. Those wishing to gain a better understanding of the realities facing agricultural laborers in this country can refer to these reports. We will add new and relevant reports as they become available. |
Wage Theft: An Economic Drain on Florida
This is the second in a series of reports monitoring the growing problem of wage theft in Florida. Using previously unanalyzed data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and separate data from various community organizations, this report shows evidence of a widespread problem across a broad spectrum of industries in Florida.
Fields of Peril. Child Labor in US Agriculture
Hundreds of thousands of children under age 18 are working in agriculture in the United States. But under a double standard in US federal law, children can toil in the fields at far younger ages, for far longer hours, and under far more hazardous conditions than all other working children. For too many of these children, farmwork means an early end to childhood, long hours at exploitative wages, and risk to their health and sometimes their lives.
Hormone Disruptors and Women’s Health
A woman’s body changes throughout her lifetime. Each stage of life, from fetal development to post-menopause, involves a direct relationship between her hormones and how her body develops and functions. When this relationship is in balance, it helps create the conditions for good health. When this relationship is out of balance, it can lead to a range of health problems that can be painful and devastating.
Lake Apopka
Lake Apopka, as Florida's most polluted large lake, rose to international attention in the 1990's because the wildlife studies on the lake's alligator population that discovered drastically reduced reproductive rates, along with genetic deformities, among the lake's alligators. Fifty years of farming in the North shore of Lake Apopka resulted in pesticide and fertilizer run-off that were blamed for the Lake's distinctive pea green color. Yet, the more insidious problem would remain invisible. A spill of DDT, in 1980 into a percolation pond at what is now the Tower Chemical Superfund site at Gourd Neck Springs in the South quadrant of the lake, is likely responsible for the breakdown components, DDD and DDE, that were discovered in the tissue samples from the studied alligators.
Farmworkers in the Southeast
It can be difficult to find data on the farmworker population. Contributing factors include the migratory lifestyle many lead, their undocumented status, under-reporting by employers and general lack of priority put on the needs of this semi-invisible population. The profile is an attempt to fill in some of the gaps in information about Farmworkers in the Southeast. For the purposes of this profile, “The Southeast,” includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.
Organophosphates, Friend and Foe: The Promise of Medical Monitoring for Farm Workers and Their Families
This Article assesses the existing mechanisms designed to protect farm workers from occupational exposure to pesticides and identifies and analyzes some of the shortcomings of the regulatory system. It focuses on the class of pesticides known as organophosphates and examines the impact that such pesticides can have on farm workers as well as on their families.
Examining the evidence on pesticide exposure & birth defects in farmworkers:
The purpose of this bibliography is to inform the discussion of birth defects in
farmworkers. The investigations into the Ag-Mart case may contribute to a perception that the tragic birth outcomes in that case are an anomaly, because the families contend that they are the direct result of egregious pesticide misuse as documented by state investigators. However, reviews of the epidemiological literature indicate that more generally, birth defects in farmworkers may not be an anomaly, but rather a real risk for families who work regularly with toxic pesticides.
Inventory of Farmworker Issues and Protections in the United States
In other words, the current lack of accessible data and documentation about farmworkers’ employment—and their ultimate role in the food system—has in effect kept farmworkers hidden from public attention. Few people, for example, are aware that farmworkers are excluded from the basic labor and safety standards firmly established in other employment sectors. Likewise, many people would be shocked to learn that farm work has little or no overtime limits, child labor restrictions, collective bargaining rights, or workers’ compensation insurance, although agriculture is considered to be one of the most hazardous industries in the U.S.1.
Los trabajadores agrícolas y la política de inmigración
Por más de un siglo, la agricultura ha sido un punto de entrada al mercado laboral para los inmigrantes en EE.UU. Actualmente, cerca de tres cuartos de los agricultores contratados son inmigrantes, la mayoría indocumentados. Dicho estatus legal, salarios bajos y horarios inconsistentes, contribuyen a una precaria situación económica.
Together for Agricultural Safety
The TAS project was developed in 1997 to design, implement, and evaluate a program to reduce the adverse health effects commonly associated with pesticide exposure. The project focuses on worker communities in the fernery and nursery industries in Volusia, Lake, Seminole, Orange and Polk counties.
Unauthorized Immigration, Hunger, and Poverty
Much of the current immigration debate centers on issues of legality. While this is an important facet of immigration policy, the causes of unauthorized or illegal1 immigration are not rooted in law, but in economics.
